By Liu Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-03 14:04

Pedestrians walk by a China Mobile service outlet in Shanghai on October 5, 2007. In the latest CSR report, the company said it's committed to growing together harmoniously with industry, society and nature. [newsphoto]

China Mobile Communications Corp released its 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the end of last month, the second corporate citizenship study by the nation's top wireless operator.

The report says that the State-owned giant is committed to the core value of "Responsibility Makes Perfection" to grow together harmoniously with industry, society and nature.

In the nine moths ending in September 2007, revenue of the corporation was up 20 percent year-on-year as it paid 43.6 billion yuan ($6.13 billion) in taxes and created 1.37 million direct and indirect job opportunities.

The company held assets worth more than 500 billion yuan and had more than 350 million subscribers in September.

President Wang Jianzhou says the company's continued success ensures that it is increasing shareholder value and State-owned assets.

The company used its strength to make contributions to society through CSR programs in rural regions, culture and green developments, Wang says.

Rural programs

At the end of 2006, there were more than 737 million people, or 56 percent of China's population, living in rural areas. To meet their needs, China Mobile extended its network coverage, developed new voice and data services and increased the popularity of mobile services in counties and villages, bringing the information society to rural China.

With guidance from the Ministry of Information Industry, the wireless operator played a key role for the past three years in the "Village Connected" project, a program to expand the telecommunication network into vast rural areas. It built 17,769 base stations, brought coverage to 39,784 previously unconnected villages and increased coverage in administrative villages to 99.5 percent, says the report.

Based on its efforts in the project, China Mobile launched a rural information network in 2006 that serves as an exchange to share agricultural information in rural regions.

There were 5.93 million users of the rural information system by the end of last September, when China Mobile carried an average of 6 million text messages and received an average of 14,000 calls each day to its rural information hotline, for a total of 1.04 billion messages sent and 3.7 million calls received since the service began.

Agriculture-related content had 4.34 million hits on the company's rural information website, while users added 1.87 million new posts to the site.

At its peak

"In 2007, we continued to provide high network quality and sustained stability amid important national events and major natural disasters," says Wang.

He adds that he feels proud to say that the company was able to accomplish a first for the mobile telecommunications industry - building a base station on Mount Everest, 6,500 m above sea level - for good network quality during the passing of the torch for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Its CSR report says China Mobile also offered support for society's disadvantaged, including financial support to cataract surgery for the elderly, internships to university students and the donation of 50 million yuan to a foundation called China 12.1 that supports children orphaned by AIDS.

The report says the telecom has also implemented programs to manage unwanted spam text messages and promoted transmission of positive, healthy messages through programs like "Red Sayings" and "E-thumb Literature".

It supported several philanthropic educational efforts, including the China Mobile Library that donates to libraries in underdeveloped regions, trains rural teachers and offers financial aid to students in poverty.

Action plan

"We have created a three-year green action plan, working hard to lead industry efforts to conserve energy and reduce waste by promoting new techniques to manage resource consumption, improve resource efficiency and decrease environmental impacts," says the president.

To meet the nation's goal of a decrease of 20 percent in the GDP energy use ratio by 2010, the telecom plans increase its energy efficiency by 40 percent compared to 2005 levels and eliminate the consumption of 8 billion kWh of electricity.

The reports says over 6.8 tons of carbon dioxide will be eliminated through the effort and save the equivalent of 2.7 million tons of standard coal or equal to removing more than 1.7 million vehicles from the road in a year.

Alexis Krajeski, associate director with the governance and sustainable investment department of Foreign &Colonial (F&C) Investments, a European investment group, lauds the efforts and looks for even greater leadership from the top telecom.

"As China Mobile develops and expands its CSR management systems, F&C encourages the company to further consider its environmental and social impacts throughout its entire business chain," he says.

Krajeski suggests that the company's strong track record in management and internal controls could grow to include a vendor code of conduct that would outline its expectations for business partners and suppliers.

Best practice codes cover a range of issues, including anti-bribery and corruption efforts, employee welfare and working hours, reducing pollution and product safety.

To be effective, any such code should be supported by training, implementation and oversight systems, as well as a corporate culture that encourages dialogue with stakeholders, he says.

"Leading multinational companies that operate in China are establishing such systems and are providing business ethics help lines and other mechanisms through which employees in the supply and distribution chain can ask questions or report concerns," he says, adding that China Mobile's leadership position in the nation's telecommunications sector gives it potential to be highly influential in driving sustainable business practices across the market.